State could sell ‘surplus’ Volusia park land

Saturday

Aug 24, 2013 at 6:15 PMAug 24, 2013 at 11:17 PM

By DINAH VOYLES PULVERdinah.pulver@news-jrnl.com

Four parcels of state park lands in Volusia County that the state considers surplus could be sold to the highest bidder under a proposal to raise money to keep the Florida Forever conservation land buying program afloat. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection last week released a list of 169 sites, totaling roughly 5,300 acres, that emerged as potential surplus parcels during a review by staff and consultants.Park enthusiasts, environmental advocates and conservation groups statewide questioned the proposal, saying the directive handed down by state legislators seems to mock the name of the state’s long-time land conservation program. “Either it’s forever or it’s not,” said David Hartgrove, conservation chairman for the Halifax River Audubon chapter. In Volusia, the list includes 29 acres, including two parcels in Lake George State Forest, a parcel on U.S. 1 in Ormond Beach that is part of Tomoka State Park, and a 22-acre strip alongside the railroad tracks at Blue Spring State Park destined to become one leg of the county’s Spring-to-Spring trail system.No state-owned land in Flagler County is on the list.County officials said the list caught them completely by surprise. The Volusia County Council voted Thursday to ask the county’s lobbyist, Fred Leonhardt, to let the state know it would like to see the local parcels removed from the list. The council was particularly concerned about the piece the county holds an easement on for the trail. “Nobody understands why they’re doing this except to be able to say they’re removing public lands and selling them,” said Volusia County Councilwoman Pat Northey. “I’m very concerned that if we don’t weigh in and figure out how they got on there and how we get them off, a project we’ve worked on for 20 years could be in jeopardy,” said Northey. The DEP is reviewing the 3 million acres owned by taxpayers and held by the state’s Board of Trustees, which is the Governor and Cabinet. The land is managed by the Forest Service, Division of Recreation and Parks, and Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.State officials were ordered to determine if any public lands are no longer needed for conservation. The state’s five water management districts were ordered to undergo similar reviews.In a statewide webinar discussing the review on Friday, Susan Grandin, director of the department’s division of state lands, said the assessment “is a prudent thing to do.” The state has “an impressive portfolio of conservation land,” Grandin said. With any investment, she said, it’s always a good point to take a look at that portfolio to ensure it’s the “best it can be.” The 169 sites amount to about .2 percent of the total holdings, said department spokesman Patrick Gillespie.The list is still “preliminary” and “likely to change” as the review process continues, Gillespie and other state officials said last week. To put the list together, Gillespie said each agency went through its holdings to look for outparcels that could potentially be sold. Meanwhile, a state committee also created a model to review state lands and determine outparcels that might no longer be needed. The Trust for Public Land used a model to produce a list of potential parcels, such as lands separated by roads from the main holdings or parcels where the state intended to buy other surrounding lands and never did. “There are a lot of outparcels that no park visitor has ever been on because it’s just not connected,” Gillespie said. The parcels also were reviewed by the Florida Natural Areas Inventory and department staff to examine the property’s importance for water resources, wildlife habitat or cultural and historic resources. The state conducted a public meeting in Tallahassee last week and two statewide webinars. State officials said they will review the comments and the list and expect to take a further refined list to the Acquisition and Restoration Council for review in September. After that meeting, the Department plans to conduct a series of public meetings around the state. Before any land is sold, the Council must formally declare it surplus, then the state is required to offer the land for lease to state universities and colleges at a minimal cost, Gillespie said. Then the state is required to offer it for sale to local governments. If local governments aren’t interested, Gillespie said the property would be offered in a bid process. State law requires any proceeds from selling the conservation land to go back into the conservation land-buying fund. That amount is budgeted to be up to $50 million in the coming year. State legislators have directed that acquisition priority be given to buffers for military installations, “to pursue the state’s economic goals,” Grandin said. Other priorities are springs protection and water resource protection. Hartgrove said he could “appreciate” that the state has some pieces of property that have marginal environmental value, for example cases where the state had to acquire more parcels of land in a single purchase than it needed to get the environmentally sensitive piece it wanted. “If it went through a very careful vetting process, I think it could be surplus,” Hartgrove said. But, in other cases he’s suspicious other ulterior motives could be playing out behind the scenes. Northey said Volusia officials would be open to having the state deed the land over at no cost, similar to an agreement the county reached with the St. Johns River Water Management District, which conducted its assessment last year. In the district’s case, the staff conducted a scientific review of each parcel and decided that 35,000 of its 600,000 acres could be deeded over to public agencies or be sold as surplus. Some of the lands were offered to county governments and it was agreed up to 10,000 acres could be sold. The district has begun working its way through the adopted program, for example, agreeing earlier this year to deed over 3,199 acres in Graham Swamp to Flagler County. Charles Lee, senior policy advocate for Audubon Florida, said while he would give the district’s ultimate program a “B+,” the state’s proposal would earn a “D-.”For example, Lee said the state shouldn’t be proposing to sell off 400 acres in Wekiwa Springs State Park, in an area where the region is trying to conserve groundwater, protect the Springs and provide habitat for Florida black bears. “It’s nonsensical,” said Lee. He is among a number of statewide advocates who are very concerned over the proposal to parcel off land in some of the state’s most sensitive areas, such as Biscayne Bay, Cayo Costa Island and areas of scrub, considered one of the world’s most imperiled ecosystems. For example, Lee questioned why the state would allow developers to buy land on the islands in Cayo Costa State Park and build in a coastal high hazard zone. Lee said the cost of any clean up after a major hurricane would be borne by taxpayers.During Friday’s webinar, state officials said they are going to take a second look at a number of parcels on the list that include mangrove wetlands and coastal high hazard areas. Just as the water management district plans to keep conservation easements over some of the lands it sells to restrict development, DEP officials said the state could also restrict what happens on land it sells to prevent conflicts with the management of adjoining park lands.

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